Abstract
So far there seems to have been no practical method for the assay of cardiotonic steroids which measures their positive inotropic activity per se directly on the cardiac muscle preparation. A series of studies on the structure-activity relationship of cardenolides conducted in this laboratory have brought about much newer knowledge on this problem, including dispensability of 3 β -hydroxy group or 14 β -hydroxy group for cardiotonic action and inactiveness of 15 α -hydroxydigitoxigenin (1–4). In the course of the study, it was felt necessary to describe the potencies of important compounds in terms of numerical values. This led us to develop a new assay method which is based on the potentiation of K-contracture of frog ventricular muscle by these compounds, and it has been applied successfully at least to the aglycones. The present paper will report on the new method and the results of the assay of seven aglycones. In addition, the relative potencies of the compounds were compared with those obtained by another method with Straub’s isolated frog heart preparation.
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